My sister, Maureen Moore Taylor, would have made a great reporter. Within 15 minutes of meeting Albert Lockwood last week at an ice cream shop in Guilford, she had the World War II veteran telling her about demolitions work in Belgium and France some 70 years ago.
“There aren’t many of us left,” Lockwood told her, and that’s the truth. The number of World War II-ers is dwindling fast, and we would do well to get to know them and thank them for their service while we can.
It was Lockwood’s navy blue hat labeled “World War II” that drew Maureen’s attention, but the truth is these old guys from the war era of our dad, the late Dinty Moore, are a treat for us to meet — and they enjoy being met.
My sister practically turns into my dad as she makes a new acquaintance such as Lockwood, the tone of her voice dropping a bit, its cadence the same as our dad’s, her attitude seeking and welcoming new information such as the unit with which Lockwood served: the 243rd Combat Engineer Battalion.
“Lots of people will tell you where they served and what they did,” Lockwood observed, but that doesn’t make it so. The 89-year-old took out a copy of his DD-214, his discharge paper from 1946, which is a short form of what is in his U.S. Army records.
In 2002, I used my dad’s discharge paper from the U.S. Navy to write a Family Ties column just days after he died, marveling at how much information could come from one sheet of paper. I encourage family historians to seek out such documents for their own family, and it occurs to me I’d like to get a copy of the discharge paper for Uncle Rod Moore, my dad’s younger brother who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War in Alaska, the U.S. Territory where he volunteered to go because of its promise as a place to fish and hunt.
Lockwood’s discharge paper tells me that Pvt. Albert S. Lockwood joined the service from New London, Connecticut, on March 31, 1944. Classified as a utility repairman in Co. C of the 243rd, he earned battle ribbons at Rhineland, Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge.
In France and Belgium, Lockwood found himself cutting down trees, doing construction, repairing bridges, driving light trucks and undertaking demolitions — a task he found scary a time or two.
The war ended in Europe first in the spring of 1945. Then it ended in Japan in August 1945. But Lockwood, who will turn 90 toward the end of this year, wasn’t discharged until May 11, 1946. The reason was simple: He didn’t have enough “points,” the measure by which the military decided when you could go home. And certainly there was plenty of work to do in war-torn Europe for Allied troops who stayed after war’s end.
Having met several World War II veterans while in my company, my sister is well-trained to ask the important questions. “Do you have one of those walking sticks from Cole Land Transportation Museum?”
Yes, he does. It was time for a question from me. “Did you know there will be a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II the middle weekend in August at the Cole Museum in Bangor?” No, he didn’t, but he’ll be there.
Walking sticks are available to Maine veterans of WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Global War on Terror, with discharge paper or other proof of service, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 1 to Nov. 11 at the museum on Perry Road.
Libraries have numerous books on World War II and sometimes on individual units. I also found a book on the history of the 243rd Combat Engineer Battalion on the website of the U.S. Army History and Education Center Digital Collections at http://cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16635coll14/id/55980/rec/1.
The main website of the center is USAHEC.org.
It turns out that Albert Lockwood, who lives in Abbot part of the year and built 86 houses in Connecticut before moving with his wife to Maine in 1979, knew my dad and Maureen’s husband, Scott Taylor, from working at Guilford Industries years ago.
Maureen also told Lockwood that her father-in-law, Manson Taylor of Harmony, known these days as Carter Zimmerman’s great-grampy, served in France during World War II. I didn’t remember that. Sounds like another discharge paper I’d like to see.
Veterans of more recent wars and non-war eras also have discharge papers, so let me say again how much I think such documents can add to our family stories. Even for a veteran who already has died, the search for information on, for example, the Battle of the Bulge may add immeasurable enlightenment about the service of those we knew.
For information on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.